The Gold in These Hills

 

I am most familiar with Joanne Bischof's books that are set in the Appalachians, but this novel was a departure for a different side of the US.   Beginning in the early 1900s in California and diving into modern day, this book takes the reader through the ghost towns of gold mining and the heritage of the peoples living in that area.  The place is Kenworthy, California.  In the late 1890s, a mine was salted with gold and then sold to  someone thinking he could get rich.  All that could be gotten out of the mine was about $10.00 worth of gold.  

Juniper Cohen is living on a farm outside of Kenworthy with her daughter and is waiting for her husband to come home.  He had left, ostensibly, to find more work.  After being gone for nearly a year, she finds that he wasn't the man she thought he was, and she finds it hard to forgive him.  In the meantime, she has befriended the mercantile owner and the local school teacher.  

Johnny Sutherland is being divorced by his wife who threatens to file for full custody of their two children unless she gets her way.  She already took their home and most of their assets.  He doesn't want the divorce, but is pushed into it when he finds that she's pregnant with her lover's child.  To agree to her terms is the only way he can have shared custody of the children.  In carving out a niche for himself in his new circumstances, he buys a house that was once the home of Juniper Cohen. 

Through Johnny's realtor, he connects to a student who is studying the area in hopes to find something of her own family background.  Sonoma Del Sol, the student, is a descendent of Juniper's friend, Edie, the mercantile owner, but piecing together all of the history is hard--there are gaps and relics in Johnny's barn may have the clues she needs.  

This isn't a book full of action and derring-do, but a quiet meandering through the wilderness of life where there are fields and creeks and forests and mountains for our viewing pleasure.  The characters exhibit strength, courage, grief, and love throughout the book and that's what makes them so likable. 

The driving force in this book is forgiveness and mercy.  All of the characters need it at one time or another, and all of them give it and receive it in unexpected ways. That is what makes this book a five star read.  Joanne has done a masterful job in showing how withholding forgiveness holds us back and stunts our spiritual growth; and how giving mercy puts us in a position to receive blessings beyond our wildest dreams. 

Thomas Nelson and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own. 

Make You Feel My Love

 

The title of this book puts an earworm in my head, so I look it up and it's a Bob Dylan song from 1997, and the song encapsulates the basics of Robin Lee Hatcher's plot. 

Chelsea needs to escape a bad relationship and her timing couldn't be better because her great-aunt needs some help to recover from a fall. So Chelsea ends up in Chickadee Creek, Idaho, to help Rosemary get back on her feet.  

Liam recently lost his younger brother to cancer and needs to hide from the glitz and glam of Hollywood to mourn his loss.  Chickadee Creek offers him the refuge he needs to get away from all that his life in Hollywood entails. 

While Chelsea is helping Rosemary clean up her antique shop, she comes across a violin, something she always wanted to learn.  Rosemary gives the violin to her, but she finds out that the instrument is worth far more than she ever imagined and it once belonged to Liam's great-great grand mother, Cora.  

Chelsea takes the violin to Liam, but instead of wanting it for himself, he gives the instrument to Chelsea for her own use.  The more Chelsea and Liam are around each other, the more they begin to like each other.  Chelsea has her own dark secrets that she has to overcome to grow in her relationship with Liam.  Both Rosemary and Liam help Chelsea with battling her fears and growing her faith.  

I have been familiar with Robin's writings for many years.  She wrote for the secular market before she started writing for the Christian market and I saw many of her books in the bookstore where I worked for over fifteen years. The quality of her writing has not changed, just the focus.  I appreciate the way Robin has worked growing faith into her novels and she even used my favorite verse in this one. 😊

Robin tells Chelsea's and Liam's stories along with the history of the town of Chickadee Creek and Liam's forebears in this book.  It takes a while for the two plots to merge together but each story is a fascination in and of itself.  This is a solid four star book that is great to read on a rainy day, curled up with a blanket and a cup of hot tea by your side.

Thomas Nelson and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own. 

The Second Mrs. Astor

 

The Second Mrs. Astor is one of the most morose books I've ever read.  In spite of some happy moments (few and far between), the overarching part plot of the novel is Jack Astor's death.  Everything leads up to his death, everything revolves around his death, everything points to his death and everything is consumed by his death.  

There is one thing that made me smile while reading this book and that is that Jack named his dog, "Kitty."  I have always said I wanted a big dog to name Kitty just to scare away door-to-door sales.  

While the book is historically accurate to the characters and events, it makes for depressing reading.  Shana Abe has done well with her research into the people and times.  She switches back and forth between first person and third person narration, which can be confusing at times, if the reader doesn't catch who is speaking at the time.  Madeleine Force Astor is telling her baby son about his father who died before he was born, but she also tells about their courtship, her lack of acceptance with the Society, the few women who befriended her, and the horrible Titanic shipwreck.  

The writing is dark and far too cumbersome to my tastes. A Two Star book. 

Kensington Books and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.  

A Lady in Attendance

 

This is one of the most interesting books I've read in a while.  Rachel Fordham is fast becoming one of my favorite authors, whose books I will always choose to review when they come up in my feed.  I was not disappointed in choosing this book.  

Hazel has spent five years in a reformatory for a crime she didn't commit but was convicted.  Now she is out looking for a job and trying to make her way after her family has asked her not to come back home.  They do not want her name to taint the opportunities for her sisters. She moves to a town not far away from where she grew up and finds work as A Lady in Attendance for a dentist.  In today's vernacular, she would be classified as a dental assistant.  She wants to be able to go back home and see her family, but she would have to clear her name first.  As Hazel and Gilbert, her boss, become more acquainted, he becomes more intrigued by Hazel's secrets that she truly doesn't want to reveal but eventually she has to show her hand.  Gilbert wants to help and enlists the aid of his friend, Duncan, who is also an attorney.  His older brother shows up to throw a spanner in the works, but eventually ends up being very helpful. 

Rachel has included intrigue, murder, and general mayhem in this book, along with two sweet love stories that have happily ever afters for the ladies as well as the men involved. The settings in this book are easily imaginable and the characters are believable and likable.  The plot keeps the reader's attention with its pace and its subject.  

This is a five star book with two thumbs up and a family reunited. 

Revell Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own. 

Along a Storied Trail

It seems that the latest "thing" in historical novels is the Depression Era Works Progress Administration horseback librarians.  Over the last year, I've read at least three novels describing the lives of these librarians, their hardships, their commitment to the goals, and the work that they do.  All of the authors bring a new viewpoint to the stories they are telling, but overall the plots are the same in some regards.  There is only so much that can be said of these intrepid women who rode up into the hills of Appalachia to bring literacy to the families there.  The stories are different, but yet oh so similar.  

Ann Gabhart is an author who knows how to weave a tale to keep her readers engaged and involved.  She writes great dialogues and plots that compel the readers to dive into her narratives with both feet.  Along a Storied Trail is similar to the other books of this era, but it does stand out because the  author is so good at taking her readers along on the ride. 

Tansy Calhoun has taken one of the routes for the county horseback librarians and has also become tasked with guiding the Federal Writer through the hills to collect the stories for the project.  He comes to town in a car thinking it will get him where he needs to go, but doesn't realize that most of where he needs to go doesn't have a road to get there and his car won't travel the trails and the hills.  

Caleb has come back to town after learning his brother was killed in a freak accident.  He had been working with the WPA in Tennessee but his project has finished.  He has always been in love with Tansy and can't quite get over the amount of time she's spending with the "city-slicker" writer.  

It's interesting to read the folklore of the hill people of Appalachia and part of that has been woven into the warp and woof of this novel.  That alone makes it worth the time to read it.  If the story hadn't been done so many times in the last year or so, this would be a five star book, but because it is  so like others I have read already, I give it four stars. 

 Revell Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own. 

To Find Her Place

 

I didn't realize that To Find Her Place is the second book in a series by Susan Anne Mason until I read the listing on Amazon. Then I read the description of the first book of the series and found I'd already read it and reviewed it. The main character of the first book makes a couple of cameo appearances in this one, but other than that, the two books can be read as stand-alones without any loss of context. 

I'm finding that I love the way Susan writes. Her characters are flawed, but likable, her settings make her writings come alive, and the way she deals with societal difficulties is gentle and with dignity.  In this book, she deals with a foster care system that is relatively new in society during the throes of World War II.  

Jane is the interim directress of the Children's Aide Society in Toronto and deals with foster care placements as well as adoptions. Garrett has been asked to come in and review how the Society is being run, what improvements can be made, where cost-cutting measures can be taken, where fund-raising efforts should be enhanced, and to audit the books for discrepancies.  

Jane wants to be the permanent directress of the Society, but her real strength lies in being a caseworker for the children and foster parents. There is one child in particular who has stolen her heart, simply because he has not been given a chance by any of his foster parents who claim they cannot deal with his recalcitrant ways and his medical condition. 

Garrett also wants to be the director of the Society, and has a skill set that is more appropriate for the position, but working with Jane has him in a quandary.  He's beginning to have feelings for her, but realizes that he can't let his feelings interfere with what he's doing for the Children's Aide Society. 

Susan has included in this book several sub-plots with the encumbering conflicts that all have to be worked out in order for the protagonists to have a happily-ever-after.  She pulls it all together quite skillfully and leaves the reader fully satisfied with how the denouement is resolved. 

This is a five-star book with two thumbs up and a precious child finding love. 

Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own. 

Seeds of Change

Lauraine Snelling is a prolific author of historical romance, and she is well suited to the role.  She excels at her craft which makes her books a delight to read. In her latest offering, she begins a new series and I cannot wait until the next one to come out.  

Four sisters and two brothers live in Ohio working in the mercantile and growing gardens with the seeds their mother left behind for them.  When the younger brother gambles away their home place, the oldest sister comes to the saloon to win back what he's lost.  Larkspur, or Lark as she is called, figures out that the gambler has been cheating.  When she calls him out on it, she makes an enemy, just as she had made an enemy of the deacon who had been leading the church since their pastor had met with an unfortunate accident.  Fearing for her life, her older brother, Anders, sends her and their sisters to Nebraska to buy a farm and to settle in a new place. The trip to Nebraska is not without its difficulties: Lark masquerading as a man to protect her sisters, children who are suddenly orphaned, one of the sisters becoming ill, and disgruntled wagon train members.  The girls take in the children and are befriended by a doctor and his nephew who were on their way to California.  The one thing the girls want to do more than anything is to begin to grow and sell flower seeds.  All of the girls have been named for various flowering plants and shrubs--Larkspur, Delphinium, Forsythia, and Lilac, and all of the girls are as pretty as their name-sakes. 

There are twists and turns throughout the book that make it an engaging read.  Like I said before, Lauraine excels at weaving a tale and I am sure that in the subsequent books, she will tie up all the loose ends quite well, because the gambler and the deposed deacon are still out to get Lark. 

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a seed catalog to fulfill all of your floral dreams.

Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own. 

 

Fly Home to Me

The one redeeming thing about this book is that it doesn't take long to read and it isn't very involved.  I wish I could have liked it better, but it seemed the most important thing in this book was how many times the characters changed clothes and what they were wearing.  There really wasn't a lot of character development, although the setting seemed to be fully fleshed out.  

Piper Holland is caught in a traffic jam when she sees an Air Force man helping to push a stalled vehicle out of an intersection.  When she finally gets through the intersection and to her destination--the dry cleaners--she finds that the Good Samaritan has come to the same dry cleaners to pick up his cleaning.  She tries to pay for his cleaning bill and thus begins their relationship. The rest of the book is spent with them getting together with clothing changes in between.  Piper does some reconciling with friends and family, but the majority of the book is Piper trying to figure out what to wear.  The Air Force Hottie (as he is described in the book) is imaginative about the dates he plans for Piper and himself and that is the best part of the book. 

I know this review is rather harsh, but since I finished the book two days ago, I haven't been able to find anything more positive about the book.  This is the first book I've read by Chalon Linton, and it will probably be the last book I read by her. 

One Star.  

Covenant Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own. 

 

The Heart's Charge

 

I will read anything Karen Witemeyer writes, because she does her craft so well.  In her newest offering of the Hanger's Horsemen, she writes of a love lost and found again; of unexpected love; of greed, abuse, and exploitation of children; and of heroes and damsels in distress, or maybe heroic damsels and heroes in distress. The characters in The Heart's Charge are strong, noble, and loving--and those are the female characters. 

This is book two of the Hanger's Horsemen series, and after this book there is one more horseman to marry off.  I can't wait to read his story. 

Mark and Jonah are traveling home after delivering a horse that Matthew had sold when they come across a woman in the throes of labor.  She was also in the depths of grief and not wanting to continue living after delivering the baby.  When Jonah comes back with the doctor, he helps the mother and then gets Mark and Jonah to take the baby to a foundling home not far away.  At the foundling home, Mark meets his past in the person of Kate Palmer--the love of his teens whom he has never forgotten--and both of them meet their future.  When Jonah and Eliza deliver the baby to a wet nurse, a child asks Jonah to help find the kiddy-snatchers.  The era of this book is close to the turn of the twentieth century, and a recent stock market crash had the country in a depression.  Many children were homeless and got around the country riding in box cars on trains.  These are this children who were targeted for exploitation and were the prey of the kiddy-snatchers, because they wouldn't be missed by anyone.  

Karen has kept the plot moving at a steady pace to keep the reader involved.  Often I am tempted to skip ahead to the end of the book and see how things end up, but this time I read straight through and was entirely satisfied at the conclusion of the story.  Karen consistently writes five star books and this one is no exception. 

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and white knight on a gallant steed to rescue your day. 

Bethany House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.